Trial continues in fiery Bangor crash

Bartenders, EMT testify in former cop's homicide-by-vehicle case.

Members of the Last Chance Motorcycle Club and Messengers Motorcycle Club… (Emily Robson, THE MORNING…)

December 05, 2012|By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

Describing a scene of sudden chaos, they spoke in snapshots.

A flawless summer day. A motorcycle ride through Pennsylvania. A bend in the road on Route 512 in Bangor. A scream. A screeching of tires.

A pickup fishtailing in their lane, coming directly at them.

There was no time to react, the bikers testified Tuesday in Northampton County Court during the trial of John P. Heaney III, an ex-cop accused of killing two of their friends last year while driving drunk.

"It was carnage, really very surreal. I didn't think it was really happening," said Robert Coscia of Chester, N.Y., who remembered how he "just bounced down the road" after being thrown from his motorcycle July 1, 2011.

"Flames all around. Firemen working. That's the mayhem I realized," recalled another of the bikers, Douglas A. Volpicella of Sloatsburg, N.Y.

Heaney, 50, a retired Plainfield, N.J., police officer, refused to submit to a blood-alcohol test after he hit the line of seven motorcyclists who were part of a New Jersey chapter of the Last Chance Motorcycle Club, a support group for riders overcoming drug and alcohol addictions.

They were headed to the wake of a Pennsylvania member. Michael Zadoyko, 47, and Keith Michaelson, 52, both of New Jersey, were killed and four others were injured.

Prosecutors say Heaney had up to six drinks that day, including as many as four cocktails just before he got behind the wheel. Defense attorney Dennis Charles says his client wasn't drunk, but was the victim of a medical episode caused by the gastric bypass surgery he'd undergone three years earlier.

Tuesday marked the second day of the prosecution's homicide-by-vehicle case. Two bartenders who served Heaney at the Bangor Jacksonian Democratic Club said they made him drinks of vodka and either tonic or soda.

James A. Karner said the first was from a nearly empty bottle and contained three-quarters of a shot. The second bartender, Russell Dostal, said Heaney spilled his third drink at some point and left his fourth drink "over half" to "two-thirds" unfinished.

Dostal and Karner said Heaney did not appear drunk to them, though they told Assistant District Attorney Joseph Lupackino that they did not interact with him at length.

"He looked fine to me," Karner said.

The courtroom was packed with Last Chance members who, like those who testified, wore jeans and leather vests that bore American flags, POW-MIA badges and the words "Free and Sober" on their backs. Tough looking, though graying men, they fought emotion throughout the day with drawn faces, embracing during breaks and offering each other words of comfort.

When photographs from the crash scene were displayed to jurors, loved ones of Zadoyko and Michaelson began to cry as county Coroner Zachary Lysek pointed out the yellow and blue tarps that covered the men's bodies.

When forensic pathologist Dr. Edward Chmara took the stand to describe the "extensive injuries" Michaelson and Zadoyko suffered, Judge Paula Roscioli told people in the audience they were welcome to leave if the graphic details got too much for them.

Michaelson's widow, Luisa Jean, wept silently as Chmara testified about her husband's battered body, her hand over her mouth. As Chmara continued, she buried her face into her arms.

Also Tuesday, an emergency medical technician said he approached Heaney at the scene of the wreck to see if he was hurt. Unprompted, Heaney extended his arms and touched his fingers to his nose, a standard field-sobriety test.

"I told him, 'I'm not there for that. I'm here for the ambulance, to make sure he's OK,' " said Christopher Finan Jr., a supervisor for Suburban EMS of Palmer Township.

There was "an odor coming from [Heaney's] breath," Finan said. "In my opinion, it was like right after you got done drinking a beer or something."

To East Bangor police Chief Robert Mulligan, Heaney introduced himself as a retired policeman, Mulligan testified. In describing the crash, Heaney first said he had "veered a little bit" before correcting himself and saying, "They veered into me," according to Mulligan.

In a written statement to police, Heaney said he "was struck by a motorcycle that appeared to be passing," and that he pulled off the road to "render assistance."

Charles told jurors Monday that he does not dispute that his client went into the motorcyclists' lane. But Charles claimed that Heaney had been overcome by a problem with his blood sugar that often plagues gastric bypass patients.

In cross-examining Mulligan and another officer, East Bangor's Michael Flaherty, Charles also said that neither noted signs of drunkenness in their descriptions of Heaney in their police reports.

"His life was over. He was going away for a long time," Flaherty said Heaney had told him.

"Did he ever say to you that he was intoxicated?" Charles pressed.

"No," Flaherty answered.

Heaney, of Lopatcong Township, N.J., is also charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault by vehicle and related crimes. Last month, he rejected a plea agreement calling for him to serve three to six years in state prison.